Inside Patrick Mahomes’ remarkable return from knee injury
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Positioned subsequent to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, initially of what can be a nine-month odyssey, was the MRI machine. The outcomes of the scans that Dec. 14 day revealed probably the most important injury of Mahomes’ nine-year profession: a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee.
As the minutes handed, extra individuals entered the room contained in the Chiefs’ coaching facility, situated a number of hundred ft from Arrowhead Stadium — staff head coach Rick Burkholder; Mahomes’ agent, Chris Cabott; Mahomes’ spouse, Brittany; coach Andy Reid; basic supervisor Brett Veach; and membership proprietor Clark Hunt. Together — lower than an hour after Mahomes had crumpled to the turf, grabbed his knee and screamed in ache — the group started considering subsequent steps.
At one level, somebody regarded on the calendar. The first Sunday of the 2026 NFL season was scheduled for Sept. 13, 273 days away. While exploring surgical choices, a telephone name was made to Dr. Dan Cooper, the famend Dallas Cowboys head staff doctor who focuses on knee and shoulder accidents. Cooper offered a proposition to Mahomes: If he wished to return to the sector as quickly as potential, giving himself an opportunity to be again in uniform for the beginning of the Chiefs’ 2026 marketing campaign, he would want to fly from Kansas City to Dallas the following morning to have surgical procedure.
“I’m willing,” Mahomes responded, “to do whatever it takes.”
Throughout his rehab and restoration, Mahomes has stated that very same sentence many occasions. And his exhaustive, day-after-day actions have led to him attaining his mission — one which started subsequent to the MRI machine 274 days in the past.
When the Chiefs open their season Monday towards the Denver Broncos (8:15 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN), Mahomes, 30, might be obtainable and is predicted to be the beginning quarterback.
“It’s incredible,” Veach stated. “That’s a guy that defines what leadership and what the face of a franchise should look like. He gave up an entire summer. He just attacked [the rehab]. Everybody in the building sees it. The level of sacrifice is something that has been an example throughout the entire organization.”
Mahomes’ injury punctuated Kansas City’s disappointing 2025 season. Following the two-minute warning within the staff’s Week 15 recreation towards the Los Angeles Chargers, Mahomes tried to rally the Chiefs to a game-winning drive. He scrambled out of the pocket, rolling to his proper. With defensive finish Da’Shawn Hand chasing him from behind, Mahomes threw the ball away. But a number of steps later, Mahomes planted his left foot, which caught into the turf, and hyperextended his knee, the knee bowing to the skin of his leg, which broken his LCL.
The Chiefs’ 16-13 loss to the Chargers eradicated Kansas City from the playoffs, the staff’s first time lacking the postseason since 2014.
“I wasn’t playing my best at the end of last year before I got hurt,” stated Mahomes, who rushed for a career-high 422 yards and 5 touchdowns final season. “I think I ran a little bit too much.”
One purpose Mahomes and the Chiefs chosen Cooper is his expertise repairing two of the 4 major stabilizing knee ligaments 24 hours after injury, together with reattaching the LCL.
Aaron Borgmann, the founding father of Borgmann Rehab Solutions and a former bodily therapist and athletic coach with the Chiefs, stated most gamers wait every week or generally longer earlier than having the surgical procedure due to how a lot their knee has swelled. By having an expedited process, Mahomes averted that wait. Also in his favor: He didn’t have any artery, nerve, joint floor or meniscal harm, in accordance with Burkholder.
“For [most people], it’s 10 days for an MRI, it’s another doctor’s visit and then another week to schedule surgery and so on,” stated Borgmann, describing basic practices involving a torn ACL. “But we’re not professional football players. I stand on this: NFL players of today have the best medical care in the world due to our healthcare system and our availability of imaging.
“We have extra docs related to NFL groups than another skilled sport within the United States. It is the very best medical care yow will discover on this planet.”
Even before his surgery, Mahomes wrote on his social media accounts, vowing to not fail his expectations.
“I [will] be again stronger than ever.”
AWAITING MAHOMES ON Day 1 of 274 was Julie Frymyer, one of the Chiefs’ top assistant athletic trainers. In his first rehab session, less than 24 hours after the surgery, Mahomes gritted his teeth and grimaced in pain while Frymyer assessed his muscles and worked to make sure the knee didn’t swell up.
Mahomes and Frymyer had been through such a scene many times before for three other injuries over the quarterback’s career.
Since Mahomes became the Chiefs’ starter in 2018, Frymyer has been one of the team’s most sought-out trainers. Mahomes on numerous occasions has credited much of his success in recovering from injuries faster than the average player to Frymyer — and not to the fan theory that he possesses healing powers similar to Marvel character Wolverine. Also helping him, according to Frymyer and various others in the Chiefs organization, is Mahomes’ remarkable ability to tolerate pain, whether during a game or in the team’s training room.
Frymyer’s first main task with Mahomes occurred Oct. 17, 2019, when Mahomes dislocated his proper kneecap whereas trying a quarterback sneak.
“I remember going into that halftime and he’s trying to talk me into [him] going back out and playing,” Reid stated of Mahomes. “That [mindset] is huge for that position. You’ve got a lot of eyes on you. Guys are going to watch how you go about your business.”
With Frymyer’s assist, Mahomes shocked the Chiefs by lacking simply two video games, returning to the sector 24 days later. Before his 2025 knee injury, that was the longest absence of his profession. A number of months later, Mahomes led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl victory in 50 years. The following yr, through the postseason, Mahomes returned seven days after sustaining a painful turf toe in his left foot — whereas additionally having a concussion from the earlier week. Back on the sector, he excelled, main the Chiefs to Super Bowl LV, the place they have been crushed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Frymyer turned well-known amongst Chiefs followers and trainers within the NFL after the 2022 postseason, when she administered virtually around-the-clock remedy and remedy for eight consecutive days after Mahomes skilled a painful excessive sprain of his proper ankle in a win towards the Jacksonville Jaguars within the divisional spherical. Despite his restricted mobility, Mahomes as soon as once more carried the Chiefs again to the Super Bowl, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles for the franchise’s third championship.
“I trust her so much,” Mahomes stated of Frymyer, who final yr starred in a State Farm industrial alongside the quarterback and pop singer Meghan Trainor. “There’s days you come in [and] you’re tired. I mean, you’re sore. But she makes sure I finish the entire workout — and I’m going to do it the right way. She knows when to pull back on some days.
“It lets me go on the market and work and never have to consider if I’m doing an excessive amount of [or] am I doing not sufficient.”
Unlike these earlier, temporary rehabs, Frymyer this time needed to discover the right steadiness of when to inspire and when to encourage Mahomes by way of a monthslong course of.
The most grueling days have been in late December, when he could not stroll. While carrying a protecting brace, Mahomes could not sleep with a lot consolation. Christmas Day was not ultimate, both. Instead of enjoying along with his teammates, Mahomes watched the Chiefs lose to the Broncos from a collection inside Arrowhead Stadium, his crutches close by.
“The toughest part was the beginning, not being able to get up and chase my kids around,” Mahomes stated. “I remember sitting at the [training] table and watching us play those last few [road] games and how much it hurt me.”
Beginning in January, Mahomes spent not less than seven hours within the Chiefs’ coaching facility most days, lots of these hours alongside Frymyer. Frymyer had checkpoints for Mahomes to achieve each two weeks for each of them to gauge enchancment in his knee’s energy and suppleness. Each report was then despatched to Cooper for him to judge.
Since a participant’s progress is commonly not linear, Borgmann acknowledged that one of the crucial demanding challenges is for the participant to not get overwhelmed, emotionally or psychologically, by how tedious and meticulous every activity in rehab might be when the journey nonetheless has a number of months remaining. For continuity and diligence functions, Mahomes had Frymyer journey with him all through the offseason, a choice Borgmann praised.
“If I told you that your 401(k) and your stock portfolio could go up 1% every day, you would run to the bank with that, right?” stated Borgmann, who co-hosts the “Sports Med Bros” podcast. “If you’ve got 365% improvement by the end of the year, you’d sign up for that every day. The problem is it takes you showing up [for your rehab] to get 1% better every day.
“It’s not attractive, and numerous it’s fairly mundane and repetitive. But that is the factor that makes individuals drive the method [forward] in rehab, not the Instagram-worthy stuff that you simply do thrice every week.”
One of the most significant days for Mahomes was March 25, which happened to be the 100th day after his surgery.
Inside a training complex in Dallas, Mahomes and Frymyer began the day with their usual four-hour rehab session. The third person with them was Bobby Stroupe, Mahomes’ longtime trainer. A group of baseball players was also training at the same complex, which led to a spontaneous moment during a break from Mahomes’ rehab work: Stroupe picked up a baseball and two gloves, tossing one to Mahomes.
The men played catch for around 20 minutes, the activity evolving from short throws back and forth into a small version of long toss. When Frymyer was ready for the next task, having Mahomes walk in circles, Stroupe grabbed a football. Standing in the middle of the circle, Stroupe threw the ball to Mahomes. The quarterback, with a smile on his face, responded by tossing no-look passes back to Stroupe. Frymyer and Stroupe knew those moments were uplifting to Mahomes.
A few minutes later, Stroupe, using Mahomes’ phone, captured the quarterback taking a five-step dropback at a moderate tempo. Mahomes did his usual footwork and planted his right foot — allowing him to transfer some of his weight on his left knee — before he threw what appeared to be an intermediate pass, executing the proper follow-through in the process. The four-second video clip, which Mahomes posted on his Instagram account that day, offered the world the first public glimpse of his recovery.
“Day by Day!” Mahomes wrote in his Instagram story. “Felt [great] with the ability to throw the ball round at the moment!”
MANY OF MAHOMES’ days were divided into two parts. Frymyer had a plan for improving Mahomes’ goniometer measurements, which assessed the range of motion of his knee joint. Stroupe’s plan was a series of training sessions to make sure the quarterback didn’t neglect other parts of his body.
Stroupe, who has been Mahomes’ trainer since the quarterback was in fourth grade, wanted to improve his upper-body mobility and strength — a decision they agreed would better stabilize Mahomes’ shoulder girdle. The work to further develop his core was to ensure that as his knee became stronger, he didn’t have his hip flexors get tight, lower back become achy or ankles become stiff.
Stroupe created a six-tiered core progression program for Mahomes. Each stage, which required him to reach certain benchmarks to advance to the next level, was designed for Mahomes to become stronger. The last time Mahomes went through such a program from Stroupe was in the 2021 offseason, after he had surgery to repair the turf toe in his left big toe.
“It’s not an excessive amount of for my physique,” Mahomes said. “I plan to have the ability to do all the pieces I did earlier than.”
Less than 24 hours after his injury, Mahomes told Stroupe one of his first goals was to be cleared by Cooper to participate in the Chiefs’ OTA practices, which began in late May. Mahomes succeeded. During the voluntary practices, Mahomes did his usual 7-on-7 reps and executed all the dropbacks within the Chiefs’ offense, whether from the shotgun or under center. The lone part Mahomes was held out of was the 11-on-11 reps, a decision Reid made as a precautionary measure.
Mahomes gained confidence through small victories. Sometimes it was reaching a weight he wanted to lift. Other times it was through his gait becoming smoother or his knee’s range of motion increasing and allowing him to run faster. Stroupe also knows Mahomes loves competing, whether it’s against himself — such as comparing videos of his workouts a week apart — or against others.
Mahomes started a friendly competition with tight end Zach Ertz, a 13-year NFL veteran who spent last season with the Washington Commanders. A week before Mahomes’ injury, Ertz, 35, sustained a torn ACL and LCL in his right knee. Through text messages, the players supported each other, exchanging tips, rehab plans and what task they wanted to achieve next.
“It would begin off as, ‘What are you deadlifting?'” Mahomes said. “Then it is like sending little movies. He’s leaping and doing sure acceleration issues. I’m sending him [the] subsequent week [me] doing reducing and stuff like that.
“Sometimes you’re lonely because you’re doing stuff by yourself. It gave me someone else that I can compete with to kind of push my competitive drive.”
QB1 on the market having the time of his life @PatrickMahomes pic.twitter.com/GEFZTUfbRg
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) August 24, 2026
Throughout June and July, after the Chiefs completed their obligatory minicamp, the participant who was within the staff’s coaching facility probably the most, Veach stated, was Mahomes. At a time when most gamers have been on trip, Veach was amazed at any time when he’d stroll by the coaching room and see Mahomes. Most of these days, Veach stated, concerned Mahomes, whereas on a coaching desk, watching whichever World Cup match was being performed that afternoon throughout his rehab session with Frymyer.
In successive weeks, Mahomes traveled to attend tight finish Travis Kelce‘s marriage ceremony to pop famous person Taylor Swift (July 3); the marriage of former teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster (July 10); and the World Cup last (July 19) between Spain and Argentina. Throughout the busy social schedule, Mahomes by no means missed a session with Frymyer or Stroupe, each of whom usually traveled with him.
With Stroupe, every of Mahomes’ exercises — specializing in his footwork, rotational actions for his arms and drugs ball swings — was finished to arrange him for July 22, the day Cooper put him by way of a collection of operating, leaping and reducing checks. Mahomes wished to outperform Cooper’s expectations by producing check numbers that the physician had by no means seen earlier than for somebody with the identical injury.
“It made me really tired,” Mahomes stated. He added of Cooper: “He wasn’t going to take it easy on me.”
When the checks have been accomplished, Mahomes was cleared to take part in all soccer actions through the Chiefs’ coaching camp.
“I feel stronger than I’ve ever felt, as far as strength and lifting [weights],” Mahomes stated July 24, the day he reported to camp. “I feel amazing. … I’m excited just to be able to play football. I’ve been seeing cinder-block walls rehabbing every single day in Kansas City.”
MAHOMES NEVER MISSED a observe or a single 11-on-11 rep throughout camp, which is notoriously intense beneath Reid. That included a stretch throughout which the Chiefs had 5 absolutely padded practices in a six-day span.
Some of the Chiefs’ coaches, together with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and particular groups coordinator Dave Toub, carefully watched Mahomes to see if he would present any indicators of a limp or discomfort. That by no means occurred. Instead, Mahomes’ efficiency and mobility turned extra noticeable and polished.
On July 30, every week into camp, Mahomes flashed his athleticism in a way that shocked his teammates: He sprinted to his left on a pace possibility play and stored the ball to showcase a bounce reduce to evade a defender earlier than accelerating upfield. Mahomes ended the rep by displaying his pleasure, leaping within the air thrice and smiling earlier than returning to the huddle for the following rep.
“I try to not make those hard cuts, but at the end of the day I’m a competitor,” Mahomes stated final month. “It just kind of takes over sometimes. You want to still prove it to yourself that you can do it. I’ve been able to do that in certain spots of making quick, reactionary cuts, which I think is the biggest thing. I’ve felt great doing it.
“The coaches form of come as much as me, like, ‘Hey, let’s settle down a bit bit.’ Just being a competitor, I wish to go on the market and win and provides all the pieces I’ve for the staff.”
@PatrickMahomes pic.twitter.com/ZY5mU5HWst
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) July 30, 2026
Although defenders were prohibited from touching him in practice, Mahomes was not afraid to scramble out of the pocket, either to extend a play before throwing the ball or to see how his speed compared with his teammates’. The Chiefs’ full playbook was available, too. Mahomes had several reps during which he operated the offense under center — plays in which he did different types of play-action passes, some involving him rolling left or right out of the pocket.
On Aug. 8, midway through camp, Mahomes acknowledged that he had reached another benchmark: He was performing without having to think about his left knee.
“Everybody on this planet is aware of this participant is without doubt one of the extra dynamic individuals on this planet at his place,” Borgmann said. “Showing up on daily basis, giving it what you’ve got bought for that day, ensuring you do one thing on daily basis, ensuring that one thing is significant, it is superb to see that the method has labored.”
Part of Mahomes’ motivation this season is to prove to himself, and others, that he is a better quarterback than before his injury.
Mahomes believes he can demonstrate that by navigating the pocket at a higher level and getting the ball out of his hand sooner than he did last season (he attempted 126 passes after 3.5 seconds into the play, tied for the fourth most). Mahomes hopes to connect more often on his deep passes, too, after completing just 20 of 54 attempts on passes 20 yards past the line of scrimmage last season, throwing for one touchdown and two interceptions, according to TruMedia.
The Chiefs are also confident Mahomes will have less of a burden carrying the offense this season since they added running back Kenneth Walker III, the reigning Super Bowl MVP.
For the first time in Mahomes’ career, the Chiefs held him out of preseason games as a precautionary measure and to prevent a possible setback in his recovery. But Mahomes, to the surprise of no one in the organization, was still one of the Chiefs’ most active players on the sideline. A perfect example occurred in the second preseason game against the Buccaneers. When kicker Harrison Butker made a 69-yard field goal before halftime, Mahomes sprinted onto the field to celebrate with his teammate.
“The factor that I really like about him, clearly, is that this: He’s aggressive, he does not take something with no consideration and he loves the sport,” Bieniemy said. “With him not enjoying within the preseason, it may drive you loopy. He’s like a coach on the sideline. But it is a good factor as a result of you already know he is itching to get again on the market and do no matter he can do to assist us win.”
Mahomes has impressed his teammates, too. He made highlight pass after highlight pass during camp, often placing the ball precisely between defenders. Even when pressured by pass rushers Chris Jones and George Karlaftis, Mahomes was still able to deliver off-platform or sidearm passes. Those completions were often punctuated by Mahomes trash-talking back to Jones, the Chiefs’ longest-tenured defender.
“Nah, he is again. Ain’t no ‘doubtlessly [back],'” receiver Xavier Worthy stated, smiling. “His will and wish to is past anyone I’ve ever seen. With Pat, no matter he places his thoughts to is what he will do.”
Now that he has cleared all the checkpoints needed to play against the Broncos on Monday night, Mahomes understands the next objective for him is to experience his first hit from an opposing player, his first sack and his first open-field tackle — and stand back up each time.
He said he hopes there’s a play, perhaps as early as in Monday’s game, that gives him the confidence he felt in the 2019 opener after recovering from the dislocated right kneecap. That day, against the Tennessee Titans, Mahomes stepped up in the pocket, used his left foot to jump in the air and threw an intermediate pass to receiver Mecole Hardman Jr., who capped the highlight by scoring a 63-yard touchdown.
“It seems cool, however I truly did it as a result of I used to be attempting to get my knee out of there,” Mahomes said. “I confirmed I could possibly be athletic. I may nonetheless make performs that I’ve at all times made. You’ll by no means know till you get on the market. I belief the method that I’ve been by way of.”
On Sept. 4, with the heat rising above 90 degrees, Mahomes had one of his most difficult workouts with Stroupe at the quarterback’s house. There, the two men reached another checkpoint: their first Friday afternoon session — the speed workout Mahomes does every Friday during the season. Stroupe had Mahomes complete a series of full-speed sprints, bat swings and medicine ball throws — movements that are designed, when performed in training, to move the body faster than any similar movement the quarterback would do on the field during a game.
After 264 grueling days of rehab to that point, the results surprised no one: Mahomes’ speed was close to the fastest he has ever generated, and his core velocity measurements (for maximal strength, speed and power development while monitoring fatigue within and between sets) were the highest they have ever been.
The numbers were final confirmation of a promise Mahomes made to himself and others back in the spring.
“When I get on the sector,” Mahomes vowed May 28, “I’m going to be myself.”